Etymology
The prevalent view today is that Old English symbel, Old Saxon symbal, sumbal (Old High German *sumbal) and Old Norse sumbl, all of which translate roughly as "feast, banquet, (social) gathering", continue a Common Germanic *sumlan "banquet", which would correspond to a PIE *sṃ-lo- "joint meal" or "congregation" (literally, symposium or assembly).
A number of earlier scholars have argued for a borrowing from Latin symbola, Against this derivation (in the case of OE symbel), P.A. Erades argues that these cognates go back to Common Germanic *sumil or *sumal "gathering" (in the last case, with ablaut in the suffix). He explains the Germanic stem *sum- as ultimately deriving from Proto-Indo-European *sṃ, the zero-grade of ablaut of *sem "one, together". This is the same element which developed into copulative a in Ancient Greek.
Paul Bauschatz appears to accept sum, sam "together", but proposes that the word represents a compound with alu "ale" as its second element (rather than a suffix). This would render the meaning "gathering or coming together of ale".
The Old English noun is usually translated as "feast", and forms various compounds such as symbel-wyn "joy at feasting", symbel-daeg "feast day", symbel-niht "feast-night", symbel-hus "feast-house, guest-room", symbel-tid "feast time", symbel-werig "weary of feasting" etc. There is also a derived verb, symblian or symblan, meaning "to feast, caraouse, enjoy one's self". Not to be confused is the unrelated homophone symbel, symble meaning "always, ever".
Read more about this topic: Symbel
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